After filling up a small backpack, Gaius turned to Nakama, who was watching his every action slowly. He hadn’t forgotten that she had been dreaming in a very realistic world, aided by the Demigod Nox’s powers, to the point that she was unable to distinguish between the real world and the dreamworld.

“You know,” said Gaius, “you had been sleeping for months. What did you dream about?”

“Master Gaius, NO!” A voice came from above, and Gaius vaguely recognised it as Nexus’, but whatever the artificial intelligence wanted to follow up his words with, the boy didn’t know.

“ þèȴ × æ —” Nakama stopped talking as Gaius dropped to his knees. The water canteen in his hand fell onto the ground with a thud, creating a puddle of water that continued to grow and grow, the boy clutching at his head the whole time.

Red hot hammers were smashing onto the inside of his skull, something that even the painkillers he’d taken a few hours ago weren’t able to block out. A warm liquid ran down his cheeks and the sides of his faces, dripping onto the puddle of water already underneath him and dyeing it red.

The little girl shrieked, and ran over to Gaius. The hammers had stopped pounding when Nakama’s words were cut off abruptly, but the damage had been done. For the next few minutes, Gaius remained on his knees, unable to wrest control over his body back until whatever force that had done a number on him receded.

By the time he got up, his trousers were soaked, which was at worst mildly uncomfortable. No, what really mattered was the distraught girl before him. Nakama had broken into tears — such an incident was bound to leave some scars, if Gaius didn’t act quickly enough — and the boy hurriedly reached out to comfort her, wiping her tears away.

The blood leaking out of his eyes and ears had dried by the time Nakama had stopped crying.

“Remember,” said Gaius, “don’t go speaking about your dreams anymore.”

As he stood up, his sister in tow, the ceiling above him opened up to reveal a small gap, where a wooden sculpture dropped out from it. “Did you really think that I didn’t ask? I’m the embodiment of curiosity — I didn’t tell you because I knew what it would happen. You’re sharper than this, right?”

Gaius twitched on the spot, and then reached out a menacing palm towards the damned artificial intelligence. “Can’t believe I forgot about you, eh? What did you tell Isabelle, hmm? Didn’t know this little old me left his mortal coil behind and turned into a god. How exhilarating!”

The boy gripped the wooden sculpture and shook it. After a few seconds, he turned the sculpture on its head, and then began to shake it vertically for another minutes, before tossing it on the floor.

“My…head…” Nexus got up, wobbling on its feet.

“See if you do that again. You might not know embarrassment, but I sure as hell do!”

Nexus bobbed its little head up and down, and Gaius felt satisfaction well up in his body. “Alright, what’s with Nakama? Why are her words censored like yours?”

“I only — hic — have a few guesses,” said the punch-drunk sculpture. “Her dream probably superimposed itself onto the subtler workings of Orb. There are many unexplored areas of this world, like the lands beyond the Never-ending Sea. Maybe she stumbled across some secrets of the gods there. Liamar’s descent—”

“Liamar? The God of Fire descended?” Gaius interrupted. “You didn’t tell me anything about that!”

“I didn’t?” Nexus did a double take. “Oh, yeah, I didn’t. I suppose I can show it to you, rather than explaining it myself. Once you’re done packing, head to the Map Room — I’ll show you what happened around two weeks ago.”

“Fine — hey, wait!”

A claw had extended from the ceiling to grab the wooden sculpture, retracting swiftly before Gaius could do anything else other than shouting. He hadn’t finished with his questions, but from the looks of it, the artificial intelligence probably had something else to do.

Its true body is the entire Library, though, so what’s the point of using a vessel to get around? Gaius shook his head, befuddled at Nexus’ actions. It probably got addicted to walking around, but this was somewhat over the top.

Nakama waddled over to Gaius, her hands holding a small little dagger.

“What’s that?”

“Isabelle made it for me!” She smiled, and Gaius poked her cheek. “She said it’s to defend myself from baddies.”

“She made it for you? How?” Gaius asked.

“There was this huge huge machine! It was quite loud, though…” Nakama blinked, and then unsheathed the dagger. Silver light danced around it, and the boy was instantly reminded of the Terminus, which was sitting securely in his backpack. He reached into it, and took his own weapon out. Nakama made a cute little sound as she placed her own dagger by its side.

“So pretty…”

“I have the bigger weapon, because I’m older. You get the smaller one.” Gaius rubbed his nose, as thoughts danced through his head. “You should ask Isabelle for some training. It’ll be better if you know how to use weapons before you carry them with you.”

“Okay.”

Gaius rubbed her head, and picked up the backpack. Hanging the Terminus on his belt, he floated towards the Map Room, with a little girl following behind. It didn’t take long before he was sitting in front of the Map of Stars again, where another wooden sculpture had already prepared something for his viewing pleasure.

“Liamar’s descent.” Gaius got down to business immediately. “What was it about?”

“This.” Nexus gestured, and the scene began to play. It was a bird’s eye view, but the screen had to turn a full ninety degrees in order to capture the view, which meant that the red mass of light had appeared at an incredible altitude. “This is Liamar’s Divine Kingdom, which was forced to descend two weeks ago, a few hours after you destroyed the Altar of Gods.”

“That’s way too coincidental,” Gaius murmured, his hands gripping the tablelike Map of Stars tightly. “And?”

“And a lot of people died,” Nexus continued. “Anyone who saw the exact moment when Liamar’s Divine Kingdom entered Orb’s physical world were all killed on the spot, their heads exploding. I don’t have records for Demigods, but I managed to capture the moment when a Paragon of the Western Holdings died.”

The screen moved wildly, zooming in on a pile of headless corpses. Blood and flesh seeped into the ground below them, creating a forlorn sight.

“Died? Why would they die?’ asked Gaius.

“You’d have to ask Liamar himself for an answer. This question is beyond me,” replied Nexus. “But his descent had wiped out a good fifteen to twenty percent of Orb’s population, and I don’t think he’ll be alone for that much longer.”

Gaius was silent for a moment. “Things are changing.”

“Yes. They are.”

With that, the screen vanished, leaving Gaius and Nakama alone to ponder the aftermath.